Ersatz Enfilade - Ironclads Game

In normal years the Enfilade gaming convention would have happened over the U.S. Memorial Day weekend. But we still aren't in normal times and the 2021 Enfilade was moved to U.S. Labor Day weekend (September 3 - 5).  But with the first really good weather weekend coming up, I decided to have an Ersatz Enfilade game on my lawn.

Ersatz (ˈerˌzäts,ˈerˌsäts) Not real or genuine.

 

The lawn games from last year worked so well that I thought I would put up the pop-up canopy again for this game.

 

After talking with the group about what they wanted to play, we decided to do an American Civil War (ACW) naval action using the Ironclads rules. Kevin generously volunteered to run a hypothetical Confederate attack on Fort Pickens, which is the fort that was defending Pensacola Florida.

Target for Today - Fort Pickens

In addition to the fort, the Union would have a couple earthworks batteries and two Passaic class monitors. The fort and one battery defended the main ship channel, while the other battery covered a smaller channel. The monitors started on the land side of the fort near the main ship channel. The two ship channels were separated by a shallow bar, so the best entry points were through the channels. 

Union Monitors to help the defense

The Confederates had the Mobile squadron with the ironclads Nashville, Tennessee and Tuscaloosa and the wooden ships Gaines, Selma, and Morgan. 

 

Additionally, the Confederate force included the really hypothetical CSS North Carolina and CSS Stonewall ironclad cruisers. Historically, CSS North Carolina was seized by the British in October 1863, then purchased for the Royal Navy. CSS Stonewall was sold by the French to the Danes in 1863 and then to the Confederates in 1865, but it did not reach the Confederates before the end of the war; where it was taken over by the United States and later sold to Japan.

All the Confederates

CSS North Carolina and CSS Stonewall

The Confederates were split into two groups, the Mobile squadron and the hypothetical squadron. The Mobile squadron was set up in two parallel line-ahead formations, mainly due to the speed differences between all the ships. The slower ironclads (Tennessee and Tuscaloosa) were in a line closer to Fort Pickens and the faster ships (led by Nashville with the wooden ships following) in a line further away from the fort. The general idea was the faster ships could speed ahead to the main ship channel and keep firing on the fort, while the slower ironclads would take their shots and try to draw Union fire. This also allowed the ships to get on the map and engage with the fort fairly quickly. 

 

The hypothetical squadron planned to pass through the smaller ship channel and then make their way over to attack Fort Pickens. 

 

But, as with most plans, they weren't well explained and did not survive contact with the enemy. The mortars firing from Fort Pickens caused Nashville to turn out of line to avoid the shells. This in turn forced the following wooden ships to take evasive action to avoid collision. The outer line was never able to get reformed and the wooden ships were targets more than expected. The wooden ships turned away before they could get close to the main ship channel, while Nashville drove into the channel alone.

Confederate line in disorder

Trying to get the line back in order

The Union monitors moved slowly toward the main channel and decided to go after the closer Nashville, rather than the more distant hypothetical squadron. 

Union defenders head for the channel

The hypothetical squadron engaged the earthworks battery and silenced it. Then they turned toward Fort Pickens and began to engage the Union monitors at long range. 

Confederate heavies take on an earthworks battery

The guns on the monitors didn't quite have the range to damage the hypothetical squadron, so they held their fire for Nashville. But the Confederates were in range and caused a fire and magazine hit on one of the monitors.

Heavy action in the channel

With things very crowded in the main channel, the monitors went to ram Nashville, while Nashville tried to return the favor with a bow on bow ram.

Ramming and fires!

Damage was done to both sides, but everyone was still afloat. At this point we took a break to evaluate what had happened and decide if we wanted to continue.

Confederate decision point

Looking over the current situation; the main ship channel was blocked, two of the three Confederate wooden ships had taken heavy damage and Nashville was not in great shape. But the other Confederate ironclads only had minor damage and could still fight. On the Union side, one monitor was sinking, one fort face had taken heavy damage, and the other monitor had light damage.

 

After talking through the situation, things still seemed undecided. But we agreed the Confederates had an edge at this point with the heavy guns of the hypothetical squadron now able to be turned on the fort. Although it would be a near run thing for either side. 

 

With that, we wrapped up the game and spent the remaining time visiting and talking about current and future projects. Overall it was a fun game and day. It was good to see and game with people in person after a long winter.

 

Enfilade 2019 Recap: Part 2 - My Games

For Enfilade 2019, Kevin and I ran two air attack games. The first was the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) attack on the German battleship Tirpitz while it was in Norway and the second was an Italian air raid on Malta.

Note: You can see photos from other Enfilade 2019 games at this post.

Operation Tungsten 
This was a repeat of a game we ran several years ago. This time we used David Manley's unpublished Air War 1940 rules (instead of an adaptation of Mustangs). We had two German players, each with a pair of Me-109s and FW-190s, and four FAA players. Due to limited carrier deck space, the FAA players had to choose the planes in their strike and went with six Barracuda bombers, five Hellcat fighters, and one Marlet II (which was specially trained for flak suppression).

Half the Fleet Air Arm force

The FAA split their force into twi groups, with each group moving down  the side of the table. One group had to pass near a supporting German destroyer, which put up some light flak but didn't cause any casualties. 

Flyby of the German destroyer

The Me-109s got in close - shooting down one Hellcat and damaging the Barracudas.

Close-in action

The trailing Marlet II shot down one Me-109 before heading off to strafe the Tirpitz. The Barracuda tail gunners were able to take down the other German fighter, which had been damaged by the FAA fighters.

On the other side of the table, the FW-190s made a pass at the bombers and damaged one, knocking out its bomb release. But the escorting Hellcats pounced on the Germans and took out both the fighters. With the fighters out of the way, the Germans turned their flak to the oncoming Barracudas.

Barracudas passing through the heavy flak

German reinforcements began to show up, and the lead bomber was shot down.

Barracudas lining up for the attack

The two remaining Barracudas from the right-side of the table made their way through the fighters and flak to drop their bombs. Getting one major hit, but missing with the other bomb.

Tirpitz takes a hit

The Martlet suppressed some light flak, but was then shot down near the German battleship. The left-side bombing group lost one bomber as they neared the battleship.

Left-side group starting their attack run

The planes then started their attack run and got one more bomb hit.

The damage to the battleship was enough to keep it in port for repairs for a few weeks. So it ended up as a minor FAA victory.

Air Raid over Malta
Our second game was an Italian air raid on Valletta Harbor. The background was that a British convoy had just gotten through and the Italians were coming to bomb the ships before they could unload. We used Kevin's mat of the harbor (from Tiny Wargame Mats), which got a lot of ohs and ahs as people passed by the table.

Malta, with a little flak

The Italians had nine SM-79 bombers, escorted by six MC.202 fighters. The British had their choice of Hurricane IICs (armed with 4 20mm cannon) or Spitfire Vs, and all the British players chose to go with the Spitfires.

The Italians split their bombers, sending three after a destroyer and the other six after the large tanker.

The Italians lined up

The lead plane for the group going after the destroyer suffered an early flak hit that forced it to jettison its bombs. But it bravely led the other two planes on the attack.

The lead bomber over the destroyer

The Malta flak gunners were having a good day as they targeted another bomber, which disappeared in an explosion (a critical hit on the bomb bay).

KABOOM!

The remaining bomber was able to one bomb on the destroyer, damaging it. While the Folgores showed up to chase off a pesky Spitfire.

A small fire on the destroyer

On the other side of the table, the first wave of bombers took some damage from the defending Spitfires, but returned the damage too. They were able to put a couple bombs on target, damaging the oil tanker.

The second wave ran into a few more Spitfires and flak. The flak gunners showed their good targeting skills again by blowing up another bomber.

One more boom

The second wave was able to put more hits on the tanker, giving it major damage. The Italians lost two bombers (but all had some damage) and two MC.202s, while the British lost four Spitfires. We gave the victory to the Italians since they actually hit the ships.

Return From Concord
I also helped out with the Return From Concord game and have a few photos from that.

British Grenadiers at the crossroad

The British had Grenadiers marching down the road (a special rule said they couldn't cross the stone walls on either side of the road, but could drive any rebels away from the wall), with light infantry acting as flank guards on each side of the road.

The lead Grenadier group getting shot up

The light infantry on the right side of the road did a good job of clearing out American militia early on, but then were stopped cold when the Americans formed a second line of defense near a fence. On the left side, the light infantry spent a lot of time trading shot with the Americans, but had a tougher time driving them off.

All the Grenadiers took casualties, but they were able to make it to the other side of the board.

Grenadiers attacking militia on the stone wall

After counting up the casualties, the British eked out a victory. It was a good game and came down to the final turn to determine the outcome.

That's it for Enfilade 2019. I hope you enjoyed all the photos and commentary.

Enfilade 2019 Recap: Part 1 - Other People's Games

Enfilade 2019 wrapped up on Sunday and it was another well run and attended convention. This year there were 380 attendees. After years of having around 200-250 attendees, the convention has moved up to have 350-400 people. Most gaming periods were full of games and gamers. There were only a few empty tables in a couple periods. Overall, the convention remains healthy and it sounds like there will be more general games days coming up in 2019.

A quick view of the hall on Saturday

As per my normal Enfilade recap, I’m doing two Enfilade posts; one on the general convention and other people's games and a second covering the games I ran or helped with. This post will cover the general convention stuff.

The theme for 2019 was Winter War, so there is a lot of white in the photos (which washed out some of the figures). I getting photos of some games and some photos didn't turn out, but I tried to get as many photos as I could to show all the different games. Note this is a long post with lots of photos.

Friday
A lot more people are showing up early on Friday. The afternoon game period was well attended and the evening seemed as full as any Saturday.

1st Newbury - English Civil War

15mm Bolt Action Battle of the Bulge

The first wave hits the beach on D-Day

Eastern Front tank battle

Guilford's Courthouse (Black Powder rules)

Isola della Scala (Lion Rampant)

Kursk with microarmor

All Quiet on the Martian Front

Stalingrad

Cavalry battle near Toulouse 1814

Weitzel's Mill (AWI using Rebels and Patriots)

Battle of Auerstadt

Searching for tech after an alien invasion (see the crashed saucer in the middle of the photo)

Cruel Seas convoy battle

Chariot racing

Finns holding off the Soviets

Battle of Germantown

Greek galley warfare

Star Wars pod racing

A Ratt and Mauses taking on the Americans

The Battle of Ravenna

The French retreat from Moscow

Hurons, Iroquois, and Dutch fight it out in the New World

A train heist in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Saturday
There was a good turn out on Saturday, although I didn't get as many photos because of the games I running and helping with. 

The Great Yukon Sled Dog race

Ambush at the White River

British armor attacking north of the Bulge

Car Wars

Convoy in the Barents Sea

Foraging at Drake's Farm (AWI battle)

Battle of Dresden

Eastern Front - Winter 42

Bag the Hun - Finns and Soviets

The English try to defend their wagons from the Irish

A Japanese convoy under attack (using Mal Wright's Kaibokan rules)

Mexican-American War battle

Battle of the Trebia River

Attack on Hoth (using an AirWar C21 variant)

Beach landing at Tarawa

Aztecs and Conquistadors (with a Tardis by the palm trees)

Cruel Seas off Norway

Pulp Alley Zeppelin

Beyond the Gates of Antares demo

British retreat from Concord

Battle on the Ice at Lake Peipus

Viking raid

Conn ... Sonar Soviets

Relief of Bastogne

SAM Site for Thuds over Vietnam

Sunday
A lot of people stuck around for the Sunday game period too. I was running a game in this period, so I missed out on a lot of photos.

All Quiet on the Martian Front

Ground assault on Hoth

Gnome Wars

Convoy in the Baltic - World War I

Russo-Japanese War pre-dreadnought battle

Check Your 6 - Americans and Soviets tangle over Yugoslavia

Thanks to the Enfilade staff and all the volunteers for another great convention.